2007 Dynamic Dozen, No. 12: Software provider succeeds in catering to small businesses

Accountants Ron Stringer and John Singer established the company in Longview, Texas, when CPA Singer needed a better way to collect data to prepare cost reports for home-health agencies.

At that time, father-son duo Bob Robertson and Bobby Robertson did marketing for Healthcarefirst, but in 1998, the Robertsons saw an opportunity to make changes to the company, so they made an offer to Stringer and bought his share of the company.

Today, Bobby Robertson is the CEO, and his father is the president. Bobby Robertson said that while Singer and his son still own half of the company, they aren’t involved in day-to-day operations.

Changing to grow

Since its inception, the company has switched to a Windows-based platform that functions as a complete agency management system, allowing users to handle everything from communications with patients and physicians, billing, patient information and dealing with employees, Bobby Robertson said.

“It actually enables our clients to do point-of-care computing, which means full electronic health care records, and they’re doing their documentation at the patient’s bedside, which in our industry is typically in their home,” he said.

Since 2004, Healthcarefirst revenues have grown 84 percent; 2006 revenues were $3.5 million.

Robertson attributes much of that growth to the fact that Healthcarefirst isn’t necessarily pursuing business in the same way as its competitors.

“The typical software company provides software to their clients for an up-front fee, which is typically very large and can be a barrier to a small or medium-sized agency,” Robertson said.

But Healthcarefirst, which has more than 300 clients in 40 states, provides its products for a monthly fee, with no large up-front investment, hidden cost or long-term contracts required.

“We’ve removed all those barriers, so we’re adding, at this point, over 10 agencies per month,” said Robertson, who noted that small agencies with about 100 patients pay $1,000 per month. Healthcarefirst does serve larger firms, and those will pay more based on size, he said.

Robertson said Healthcarefirst’s revenues will top $6 million in 2007, and he doesn’t expect it to stop there.

“Our revenues will exceed $20 million by 2010,” he added.

Moving to Missouri

About four years ago, Healthcare-first opened an office in Chesterfield Village, lured to Springfield by City Utilities’ secure hosting facility at Springfield Underground.

“We decided to hire a few programmers in Springfield, and opened up a small office,” Robertson said. “We … started getting résumés from … extremely well-qualified individuals, and the office just took on a life of its own.”

Two years ago, the company moved its headquarters to Springfield, and in August, it moved again to Ozark, where it built a 10,000-square-foot office to give its 30 employees room to spread out.

An ample supply of qualified employees is another factor that solidified the decision to move to the Ozarks.

“Where we were, we were experiencing growth, but we had a hard time finding the type of employees that we felt like we needed to grow further,” said Bob Robertson. “The area’s just been great for us, We’ve had really good luck finding qualified people … and we couldn’t have grown without some of the people that we’ve found here.”

To facilitate continued growth, Bobby Robertson said the company will probably have to add more space in the next couple of years, but he doesn’t plan on leaving Ozark.

“Springfield has become a little hub for health care technology,” he said. “So there are many qualified individuals – programmers, analysts and even software support reps – in this area.”

Healthcarefirst Inc. ranked No. 12 among SBJ's 2007 Dynamic Dozen, an annual honor for the area's fastest-growing companies. Click here for the full list of 12 companies and information on the 2008 event that will introduce a whole new dozen. The special publication profiling each of the 12 is available here.